3. Updating a BIRT Installation
by Nola Hague, Alethea Hannemann, Diana Peh
BIRT: A Field Guide to Reporting
- Copyright
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- I. Installing BIRT
- II. Getting Started
- 4. Learning the Basics
- About BIRT reports
- Overview of the report design process
- About the report design environment
- Tutorial 1: Building a simple listing report
- 5. Planning Your Report
- Identifying the content of the report
- Determining how the report will be viewed
- Considering international reporting requirements
- Deciding the layout and format of the report
- Drawing a mock-up
- Considering reuse of report components
- Managing report design resources
- Deciding how the report will be deployed
- 4. Learning the Basics
- III. Accessing and Binding Data
- 6. Connecting to a Data Source
- 7. Retrieving Data
- 8. Binding Data
- IV. Designing Reports
- 9. Laying Out a Report
- 10. Displaying Text
- 11. Formatting Report Content
- Formatting data
- Formatting with styles
- Formatting data based on conditions
- Alternating row colors in a table
- Specifying alignment of content in a table or grid
- Adjusting the spacing of content in a report
- Displaying content across multiple columns
- Specifying alternate values for display
- Hiding elements based on conditions
- 12. Sorting and Grouping Data
- Sorting data
- Grouping data
- Tutorial 2: Grouping report data
- Task 1: Open the report design
- Task 2: Save the report as a new file
- Task 3: Add the credit limit field to the data set
- Task 4: Add credit limit data to the report
- Task 5: Group customer data by credit limit
- Task 6: Display credit limit ranges in the group header
- Task 7: Display aggregate information
- Task 8: Format the report
- Task 9: Preview the report in the BIRT report viewer
- Task 10: Display credit limit ranges in the table of contents
- 13. Aggregating Data
- 14. Writing Expressions
- 15. Filtering Data
- 16. Enabling the User to Filter Data
- About report parameters
- Planning to use report parameters
- Ways to enable user filtering
- Enabling the user to filter at query run time
- Enabling the user to filter after running the query
- Designing the presentation of report parameters
- Testing the report parameters
- 17. Building a Report That Contains Subreports
- Creating the report structure
- Tutorial 3: Building a report with side-by-side subreports
- Task 1: Create a new report
- Task 2: Build a data source
- Task 3: Build a data set for the customer report
- Task 4: Build a data set for the orders subreport
- Task 5: Build a data set for the payments subreport
- Task 6: Create the customer master report
- Task 7: Create the orders subreport
- Task 8: Link the orders subreport to the customers master report
- Task 9: Create the payments subreport
- Task 10: Link the payments subreport to the customers master report
- Task 11: Display only customers that have orders or payments
- Task 12: Display the subreports next to one another
- Task 13: Format the report
- Highlight the customer names
- Edit the column headings
- Change the date formats
- Change the number formats
- Increase the vertical space between elements
- Increase the horizontal space between the orders and payments tables
- Add borders around the tables
- Increase the space between the table borders and contents
- 18. Using a Chart in a Report
- 19. Displaying Data in Charts
- 20. Laying Out and Formatting a Chart
- Laying out and formatting the chart area
- Formatting the chart plot, title, and legend areas
- Formatting an axis
- Formatting a series
- Setting the series type
- Hiding a series
- Making a series translucent
- Setting the color palette for a series
- Adding and formatting a curve-fitting line
- Stacking series
- Working with different series types
- Setting the series depth of a chart with depth or a three-dimensional chart
- Formatting a three-dimensional chart
- Formatting an area-chart series
- Formatting a bar-chart series
- Formatting a line or a scatter-chart series
- Formatting a meter-chart series
- Formatting a pie chart series
- Formatting a stock-chart series
- Working with data points and data point labels
- Using styles to format a chart
- V. Enhancing Reports
- 21. Designing a Multipage Report
- Planning the page layout
- Controlling pagination
- Customizing the master page
- Using multiple master pages
- 22. Adding Interactive Viewing Features
- 23. Building a Shared Report Development Framework
- 24. Localizing Text
- Overview of the localization process
- Assigning a resource file to a report
- Assigning a resource key to a label or text element
- Changing localized text in a label or text element to static text
- Assigning a resource key to chart text
- Changing localized chart text to static text
- Assigning a resource key to a report parameter
- Editing a resource file
- Previewing a report in different locales
- 21. Designing a Multipage Report
- Glossary
As BIRT Report Designer is a Java-based application, updating an installation typically requires replacing the relevant files. Eclipse supports the update process for BIRT Report Designer by providing the Update Manager. BIRT RCP Report Designer is a stand-alone product, so you must replace the existing version with a newer version.
This chapter describes important considerations and the steps you should follow to update the following packages:
BIRT Report Designer
BIRT RCP Report Designer
Use the Update Manager to find and install newer major releases of BIRT Report Designer. To install a milestone release or other prerelease version, use the manual update instructions.
How to update BIRT Report Designer installation using the Update Manager
In Eclipse, choose Help→Software Updates→Find and Install. Feature Updates appears.
Select Search for updates of currently installed features, and choose Finish. The Update Manager may display a list of update sites. Choose one to continue. Search Results appears and displays any updates that are available.
Select a feature to update, then choose Next. Feature License appears.
To accept the license and continue installing the update, choose Next. Installation appears.
Choose Finish to download and install the selected updates.
Unlike BIRT Report Designer, BIRT RCP Report Designer is a stand-alone application. To update this application, you delete the entire application and reinstall a newer version. If you created your workspace in the birt-rcp-report-designer-<version> directory structure, you should back up your workspace or the reports that you want to keep before you delete BIRT RCP Report Designer. After you install a newer version of the application, you can copy your workspace folder back to the application’s directory structure.
As a best practice, do not keep your workspace in the birt-rcp-report-designer-<version> directory structure. Keeping your workspace in a different location enables you to update your installation more easily in the future.
How to update BIRT RCP Report Designer
Back up the workspace directory if it is in the birt-rcp-report-designer-<version> directory structure.
Delete the birt-rcp-report-designer-<version> directory.
Download and install BIRT RCP Report Designer as described earlier in this book.
Restore the workspace directory, if necessary.
Restart BIRT RCP Report Designer with the -clean option:
birt -clean
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